Today's Civil Rights Issue

    The Center for Urban Renewal and Education recently published an article describing education as "today's civil rights issue." The argument is worth considering. Our public school system has become a trap for many low-income students. The money you make determines your neighborhood which determines your school which determines your education which determines the money you make which determines your neighborhood... etc.

"Public school reality today for black kids is one that overwhelmingly keeps them incarcerated in failing, dangerous schools. It's evidence of the indomitable human spirit that, despite horrible circumstances, many poor unmarried black mothers understand the importance of getting their child educated and will do whatever it takes to get their kid into a decent school... And yet when they try, they get convicted, jailed, fined, and sent back to the plantation."

    There are many other issues feeding the cycle of poverty, but this one is too often overlooked. Education was the doorway out of poverty for many generations. Things have changed in recent decades. For those living in low-income neighborhoods, the failing school they are forced to attend only widens the achievement gap and tightens the chains of poverty.